This invention relates to a peanut press and feed mechanism for removing a predetermined percentage of liquid from a product, and is particularly suited for removing a predetermined percentage by weight of oil from a supply of peanuts.
This invention may also be adapted for use in removing a predetermined pecentage of liquid from other products such as grapes, cocoa beans, nuts, herbs and spices, and the like.
It is well-known to extract liquid from a solid product, for example it is conventional to extract liquid from cocoa beans to form cocoa butter. In such a device, a predetermined amount of cocoa beans is loaded into a press. Pressure is applied to extract liquid from the cocoa beans, the separated liquid and solids being removed for further processing.
Also known are systems for extracting liquid from edible products, such as, that used for extracting juice from grapes and the like. Examples of such systems include U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,390 issued to Hunt et al., and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,185 issued to Stanley.
The Hunt patent relates to a system for extracting liquids from fruit. A hydraulic pressure unit is used to extract juice from fruit in a two-stage system. A control system is employed to provide a continuous feed of grapes through the system for maximum efficiency of juice extraction. This control means includes a volume detector as well as a moisture sensor and controls for automatically adjusting the system to the current input of grapes to the destemmer portion of the apparatus. However, Hunt does not use a volumetric feeder to feed a totalizing scale (or vice versa) so that a predetermined percentage of oil or other liquid may be precisely extracted from a predetermined volume of product fed to a press.
The Stanley Patent relates to a system for controlling a juice extraction facility. Here, a storage location for the fruit is used, together with a sizer for separating the fruit, for recycling excess fruit. A juice storage tank is employed, and is one of the measured control variables in that the level is controlled. The amount of fruit being recycled is also a measured control variable. The Stanley reference equalizes fruit flow to the extracters so as to minimize the amount of recycled fruit, and overall maintains a proper predetermined level in the juice storage tank. However, no totalizing scale is employed in the Stanley reference, nor is the weight a major factor in the process.